


Angel.

by Maddy2411



Category: 5 Seconds of Summer (Band)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, F/M, Happy Ending, Love, Romance, Short
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-07
Updated: 2018-12-10
Packaged: 2019-09-13 12:48:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16892904
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maddy2411/pseuds/Maddy2411
Summary: Calum thinks he's met an angel.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> a little something i wrote a while ago. posted it on tumblr originally, now i'm posting it here. also the first thing i'm ever posting on here. hope y'all enjoy reading this mini-series!

Calum staggers into the club, and plops himself down in front of the bartender. She notices that her usual customer was here, looking worse for wear, and nods at him. Calum smiles back. “The usual?” she questions, and he wearily nods in response.

It’s pretty bad that day- his head hurts like crazy. Not even the studio was helpful; his pent-up anger had caused him to break three strings on a guitar. Calum thought that maybe a hookup would help, a one night stand with a random stranger to release all the anger, all the loneliness that’s been festering inside him for so long. No strings attached- if he falls as hard as he did the previous time, he would never get back up.

He notices a girl sitting next to him, staring at her empty glass like she was in another world. Annie, the bartender, sets down his usual order of rum and coke in front of him. The clink of the glass against the marble seem to snap her back to reality. She looks over at him, disoriented.

She’s beautiful, but not like the typical hot girl that he normally sees dancing the night away at clubs. Her auburn hair is a mess; her eyes are red, like she’s been crying; her lips are chapped from too much drink. Yet, she’s beautiful- mesmerising, even.

“You alright?” Calum asks. She seems surprised at first, that he’s talking to her, and then nods firmly, turning back to her empty glass.

Calum swivels around his chair to survey the dance floor. It’s not too crowded- there are a few girls, some grinding against lanky men in the dark of the club. One of them catches his eye, in a little black dress, dancing her heart out. She winks at him, and beckons him to the dance floor.

“She’s cute,” he hears a soft voice say from next to him. He turns- the once-bewildered girl is facing the dance floor now as well, looking at the same scene as he was. He shifts his eyes back to the dance floor, and the other girl is still staring at him, dancing seductively to get his attention.

“Yeah, she is,” he responds simply. His head automatically turns towards the girl sat next to him- she seems tired, weary, ready to give up.

“You should go talk to her then.”

Normally, Calum wouldn’t have needed some random chick to tell him to go talk to a girl, but today he doesn’t want to. He wants to stay there, and continue talking to this beautiful mystery sat next to him. But she’s already distracted- she’s looking at some other guy at the other end of the club.

And just like that, the slight flutters in his heart are gone.

Calum stands up and walks over to the dancing girl. She sees him, smirks, and pulls him closer by his collar. “Hey, gorgeous,” she whispers, before continuing to dance. She’s hot as hell- she’s running her hands over his shirt, she’s grinding against him, she was exactly what he had been looking for when he walked into the club; but Calum’s eyes drift over to the mystery girl again. Her glass is refilled now with a brown liquid, and she sips it lightly as she watches her surroundings. She makes eye contact with him, and gives him a small smile, and that’s enough for his heart to erupt into butterflies flitting around in his chest. He barely registers the girl dancing in front of him- she’s all he can see. He’s barely known her for five minutes, he doesn’t even know her name, but at that moment, he feels like he would follow her off a cliff.

“Excuse me,” he interrupts the girl’s dancing, gently pushing her off him. He ignores her expression of outrage, and moves back towards the bar, towards her. Her roving eyes had moved on to another object, but when she notices his mass moving towards her, her eyebrows quirk up

“What happened?” she asks. Her voice is clear and low; he notices the slight British accent.

“Not my type.”

He turns around in his stool and stares at the marble top, so that she doesn’t think he’s a creep or something, but he can’t help but glance at her. She’s so effortlessly beautiful, but she doesn’t seem to realize it.

“Would have thought she was.”

He thought so too, till tonight.

“What brings you to this miserable place?” he asks, going out on a limb. She seems like a private person- he doubts she’ll answer her question.

She chuckles slightly. “My miserable life brought me to this miserable place. Quite fitting, isn’t it?”

He smiles thinly. He’s there for the exact same reason.

“They should call it the Miserable Idiots Club, since we all seem to flock here,” he comments. It evokes a laugh from her- a proper, genuine laugh. It reminds him of summer, of better times.

He looks over at her again- as he has been since he got there. She’s in a hoodie and jeans, and Calum notices spectacles hanging from the neck of the hoodie. The light that seemed to shine from her when she laughed is dissipating; it feels like the whole club is sinking back into its gloom.

Suddenly, Calum decides that he has to show her. He doesn’t know why, but every bone is screaming at him to do so.

“Will you come with me?” he asks hesitantly. “I wanna show you something.”

Her eyes widen. He knows she’s going to say no. Why would she come with a stranger she just met? Then, she nods. Slightly, but it’s enough to rev him into action.


	2. Chapter 2

Calum watches her as she takes in the view from the beach breathlessly, and it seems like a weight is lifting off her shoulders. That’s exactly how he felt when he was there, and that’s why he ran there every time he felt lost.

“This is… wow.”

He chuckles, and gestures to the sandy ground. They both take a seat, leaning against a rock.

“How did you even find this place?” she questions.

He shrugs, proud of his little hiding spot. “I come here every time I feel lost,” he tells her.

She sneaks a glance at him, before glancing back at the view. “Then why did you come to the club?”

“‘Cause I was angry. Angry’s different from lost, you know, like…” he drifts off, unable to put his thoughts into words.

“I get it.” She sighs. “It’s like, you see the vastness of the world from here, and you’d think it would push you over the edge, but it… grounds you. This is perfect for if you’re feeling lost. If you came here when you’re angry, you’d-”

“Be pushed over the edge,” he finishes.

“Yeah.” She pauses in thought. “Why did you bring me here?” she asks.

“'Cause you seemed lost.”

She’s even more beautiful in the starlight. Her body is slouched against the rock, the most relaxed he’s ever seen her. He notices his own posture, and realizes that he’s a bit relaxed too, after a long, long time.He hasn’t felt this free since… his thoughts automatically go to her.

Just like that, the mood turns sour. He realizes that she’s noticed it too, because she’s staring at him peculiarly. Calum has always pushed away thoughts of his ex, that constantly lingered at the back of his brain, but he feels them taking over his brain now, and he’s unable to stop it.

“Are you alright?” she asks gently, voice softer than silk. It breaks his will- before he knows it, his thoughts are tumbling out of his mouth. He tells her everything, right from when they first met, till she crushed his heart, smashing it to smithereens. She was his first love; though she had a heart of stone, and a love like ice, she was his first love, and it hurt to talk about her.

He had never spoken about her before, instead choosing to force his emotions into songs and poems in the studio, but that didn’t really help. He had a bounty of beautiful songs, but the cracks in his heart remained.

And now, everything’s out in the open. It doesn’t hang heavy in the air- it feels like the sea is swallowing up everything he says. When he’s done, he can’t help but shudder a little at how unencumbered he felt, like he was Atlas, but finally shifting the weight of the world onto another set of shoulders.

He looks to his side, and notices that she has been listening intently to his outpouring of emotions this whole time. They make eye contact, and she smiles warmly at him.

“Get it all out of your system?” she asks.

He nods, smiling sheepishly back at her.

She turns to face the roaring sea again, that mirrored his once raging heart. “This place is magic.” She breathes in the salty air, and her smile grows bigger. “You were all bottled up, but you came here, and out spilled the beans.”

“I think that’s because of you.”

She looks at him, an indecipherable emotion in her eyes. Then, she shrugs. “I guess you do need someone to listen while you vent.”

That’s not what he had meant. He meant that she, a girl he barely knew, had made it easy for him to let it all out. For some reason, he trusts her infinitely. But he doesn’t correct her.

They sit quietly in the dark, a comfortable silence filling the atmosphere. Calum feels peaceful, a completely foreign feeling to him. He knows that it’s probably past midnight, and that his friends are probably worried about him, but he couldn’t care less. At that moment, time felt suspended. Nothing felt real- not the tranquility in his heart, and certainly not the girl sitting next to him.

His eyes run over her face, taking in her beauty. Even in the simplest of clothes, she seems… angelic. Not in the sense that she was innocent and pure, but more like a guardian angel. Like she’s there to bring him out of his mess of a life. She seems too damn good to be true, so the only plausible explanation is that she’s an angel. In his messed up head, it’s entirely possible that he had made her up, to help him figure his shit out. There is some psychology thing behind that, isn’t there? Anything made more sense than the truth- because why would someone like her be talking to someone like him?

Before he can stop himself, his mouth betrays him. “Are you an angel?”

Her head snaps toward him, utter surprise on her face.

“I mean, like, are you real?” He stumbles over his words, trying to explain himself, but instead digging himself into a deeper hole. “Like, are you an actual human being, or-”

“Or am I a figment of your imagination?” she asks, her voice teasing. Amusement dances across her face; she’s even more breathtaking than before.

Calum is embarrassed; he turns his head away, so she doesn’t see it on his face. Will she get up and leave?

“I thought you were a figment of my imagination.”

Calum looks at her, and she’s looking right back at him, hesitation in her eyes. “I mean, who would think that a stupid crazy bitch like me would be sat on a terrace with Calum freaking Hood?”

He’s taken aback. She knows who he is? She never showed any sign of it.

There’s a slight wind blowing now, and it pushes her hair in different directions. She runs her hand through her hair, and makes a noise of frustration.

“When you first told me to come with you, I had a slight doubt that you might be a serial killer or something, but I barely believed myself.” She looks at him, and shakes her head. “I just… trust you. I don’t know why, but I do.”

Calum’s eyes widen. He thought he was insane to be feeling such strong emotions towards a woman he hardly knew, but to hear the exact words come from her mouth, is a shock.

“I know, I know. You probably think I’m crazy. I know.”

“No, I…” Calum shakes his head firmly. “No.” He decides not to tell her that he feels the same way. He still doesn’t truly believe that she’s not just a hyper-realistic hallucination.

She sighs, and pushes herself to her feet. “I should be going anyway, it’s getting late,” she says. He nods and stands up. He could have stayed there all night, just watching the waves fall over each other, sat next to her, but he can’t stop her from going.

He leads the way back to the main street, and on the way, he tells her that she’s free to visit the beach whenever she wants to.

They reach, and she pauses in front of him. He looks into her eyes, and sees a mixture of fear and hope- exactly what he’s feeling inside. She opens her mouth to say something, closes it again, and nods firmly.

And just like that, she’s walking away. It suddenly occurs to Calum that he doesn’t know her name, despite telling her half his life history. “Hey!” he shouts after her, but she doesn’t turn back; maybe she didn’t hear him.

“Hey, angel!” he shouts again, taking a leap. She whips around, surprise on her face. “I never got your name!”

She smiles, and even from such a distance, its warmth touches him. “Do you really need it?” she shouts back, walking backwards. She laughs out loud, she turns a corner-

And just like that, she’s gone.


	3. Chapter 3

A few days after his encounter, Calum sits at a tiny café in the other end of town at 10 in the morning, stirring his cup of coffee as he thinks about her. His friends are settled comfortably in front of him, listening to each other narrate stories as they sip their respective drinks. But Calum barely hears anything- his mind is running a mile a minute, analyzing every detail of that night.

The more time that passes, the more he's convinced that the whole thing was some sort of anger-induced hallucination. The whole incident seems surreal. At any rate, he's unable to get her out of his head.

"Earth to Calum. Earth to Calum!" Ashton snaps his fingers in front of him, and he's called back to reality. "Seriously, man, get over her and chill out." He's got a huge grin on his face; Luke and Andy are hunched over with laughter. "I was just telling them the toaster story."

The thought brings a smile to Calum's face- they'd almost burned the house down, trying to use the toaster. It was a hilarious story, it wasn't surprising that they were completely losing their shit listening to it. He opens his mouth to pitch in, but his eyes drift to the front of the store, and he falls silent. 

She's right there.

She looks more put-together than she did that night- she's in a perfectly fitting lilac sweater, black leather jacket and black jeans, hair down, her spectacles sitting low on her nose as she stares at the store's menu. A thought crosses his mind, that maybe she's not actually there, and that it's mind playing tricks on him.

"Holy shit, is that her?" Ashton pipes up, and Calum realizes that the three other men have seen her too- so, she's real. He firmly closes his mouth, and nods.

"You look like you've seen a ghost, mate," Andy says. 

"That would make sense, after all, he thought he hallucinated her," Ashton replies, sending all of them except Calum into another fit of laughter. 

Calum, however, isn't paying attention- he can't believe that she's actually there. She hasn't noticed him yet. 

He stands up, to try to catch her attention, then realizes that he doesn't know her name. His friends watch on, amused, as he quickly walks over to her. She still doesn't notice him, not even when he's standing right behind her. "Hey, angel."

He's scared her- she almost drops the phone she had in her hand, and her eyes widen when she notices who's there.

"Oh my god, I- uh-"

"Hey," he says again, a small smile appearing on his face. At that, a huge smile erupts on her face, the kind that you hear about in books or movies, but never really see in real life.

"Hi," she responds breathlessly. "Fancy seeing you here."

He chuckles. He feels as light as he did on the beach the other night. "I-"

"A hazelnut latte for Ava," the barista calls out from behind the counter, and her head whips around. She carefully accepts the drink from him, murmuring a thank you. "Do you want anything?" she questions Calum, and he shakes his head. "My coffee's over there, thanks," he responds, casually pointing at his table. Noticing his gesture, his friends wave wildly at them, and he can hear their laughter all the way across the room. She waves back awkwardly.

"Your name's Ava?" he asks. It's a beautiful name; not really what he expected, but now that she's in front of him, he realizes that it suits her perfectly.

She nods simply, taking a sip from her latte. "Sorry I just ran off the other night, I was a bit... fazed, I guess."

Calum thinks back to that night- when she disappeared around the corner, the realization that he would probably never see her again had paralyzed him. He realizes that he can't let that happen again.

"I didn't even tell you my name, did I?" she continues, chuckling softly. The familiar sound stirs his heart. He looks out the window, in the hope that his face doesn't betray his strong emotions. "I freaked out and just left, and I thought we would meet again, I don't know, I- " She pauses, lets out a breath, takes another sip. "It occurred to me later that I might never see you again."

He looks back at her, and she's looking right back at him with the same hope, the hesitation that he had seen in her eyes nights ago.

"Do you want to go out for lunch?" he says abruptly. Surprise takes over her face. "Or dinner, or maybe coffee, or maybe nothing at all, I wasn't-"

"Yes," she says firmly, and her face breaks into a smile. It reaches her eyes; just like that, the whole room is brighter. "Well, maybe not lunch, I have a meeting, but we can figure it out, you know? As long as I get to see you again."

He can feel the sides of his mouth being pulled into a grin. He probably looks like a madman, but he doesn't care- she said she wants to see him again.

"Yeah, yeah, we can- we can figure that out," he says. Her cheeks turn a soft red, and she looks down at her feet, and Calum feels like his heart is gonna leap out of his chest. 

"Calum!" he hears Luke scream, and both of them turn to see the others waving at him. "We gotta go," Luke mouths, tapping his watch.

"Oh, damn, I should be going as well," she mutters, looking at the time on her phone, before looking back up at him. "Phone number...?" she drifts off, and he swears quietly, pulling out his phone and handing it to her. It elicits a laugh from her, and honestly, he would give anything to make her laugh like that for the rest of her life.

She taps in a few numbers, saving it in her name, before placing it back in his outstretched palm shyly. "Well, I guess I'll see you around, then?" she says, unsure, as if there was any chance in the world that he would just let her go after this.

"Yeah, we will," he replies, and the pure, warm smile that she flashes him before she walks away is enough to send the butterflies in his stomach into a frenzy.

And Calum thinks, that maybe, just maybe, things will finally look up for him after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's it! Hope you guys liked it, please do let me know what you thought of it in the comments:)


End file.
